It is the 147th century.
In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine
Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the
Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.
In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where
life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will
become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.
Lycaste, a lovesick recluse outcast for an unspeakable crime, must
journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient,
decadent world to find his salvation.
Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of
old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man
determined to become Emperor.
Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in
the Firmament — the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.
From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding
over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant
new talent in science fiction.